Ikea Invests in a Plastics Recycling Plant

A lot of sustainably minded companies are thinking long-term about their own supply chains and about how their products impact the planet.

A lot of sustainably minded companies are thinking long-term about their own supply chains and about how their products impact the planet. As consumers become more concerned about sustainable issues like plastic waste and other environmental concerns, they are making decisions that are good economically and environmentally.

One such example is Apple. They invested in U.S. forests to ensure the pulp and paper goods that they need for packaging is coming from a sustainable source.

Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant, has always been at the front of the pack when it comes to thinking about sustainability. Like Apple, Ikea bought forests to make sure they have a supply chain of sustainable paper. They bought wind farms in Poland to bolster the renewable energy market. Ikea is working towards 100 percent renewable energy, the goal is to produce as much as they consume in their operations.

And Ikea’s latest effort towards further reducing their environmental footprint is to invest in a plastic recycling plant in the Netherlands.

According to The Guardian, “For the Swedish furniture giant, extending control across its supply chain in this way could help it become more sustainable by avoiding environmentally damaging activities like illegal deforestation and plastic waste.”

Ikea’s stated goal with regard to plastic is to make their plastic products using 100 percent recyclable and/or recycled materials by August 2020. With their investment in Morssinkhof Rymoplast, the plastic recycling plant in the Netherlands, they hope to help the plant develop its capabilities. Right now the company currently has facilities across the Netherlands and the capacity to produce more than 220,000 tons of high grade recycled materials a year, reports The Guardian.

“It is our first investment with the recycling industry […] so at this point, it’s really a learning experience to understand more about what is needed for getting high quality plastic that can be fed into our products,” says Pia Heidenmark Cook, Ikea’s acting chief sustainability officer to The Guardian.

Of course, investing in sustainability isn’t just a way or companies and consumers can feel good about how they care for the environment. By making these investments, these forward-thinking companies are doing better financially. According to the Harvard Business Review, “Resource efficient companies — those that use less energy and water and create less waste in generating a unit of revenue — tend to produce higher investment returns than their less resource-efficient rivals.” Also, “Resource-efficient companies also display high levels of innovation and entrepreneurship, pushing core value metrics above the average large cap global business.”